Friday, January 22, 2010

Librarians should secure sensitive information on the reference desk computer with a super-secret password, like: library, reference, reflib, libref, or refdesk. This will throw hackers for a loop, as they will be expecting something much more complicated.

Ironically most places I've worked have the same formula ref and then a 3 letter acronym for the location. Fortunately most people don't know where they are, based on the number of questions I get about where we are and where books are that are shown as available at other locations.

Point taken on the password in a Post-It note or similar. When I got hired as "head" of reference (yes, there is a reason I put head in quotes) here at Backwater Rural Branch (BRB) U., I was in charge of setting the password on the reference computer. I figured trained librarians could learn to memorize a fairly simple password (I usually base it on something related to pop culture). Sadly, that is not the case because the "senior" (read older than dirt) librarian apparently does not have good memory (actually, just plain lazy), so she griped to the director, who then griped to me and thus I have to resort to the grimy sticky note now for her. Sometimes, the enemy is us.

Being a sophomore in college, who dreams of one day being a librarian, I want to point out that the password I have used for everything since I was a senior in high school has been "Reading". Looks like I am well on my way to having the important skills down!

In my library, we have a computer station with a scanner for students to use. The username and password are on a sign on the wall. The username is scanner. The password is scanner. And yet students always ask what the password is.